Author
Topic: All your Base Belongs to Me. (Read 2423 times)

But that's what Daddy Ryder did in the opening sequence. Cora even asked him about it. He explained it had to do with SAM. The game gave you this function and the in-game justification for it, expecting that you would take advantage of it - being able to instantly adjust your abilities to meet the needs of the current situation is what separates Ryder from, say... Shepard...

Yeah...I remember all of that explanation. I still think it is stupid as all hell. From the lack of replay-ability to just being stupidly OP. From my vantage point it is just bad game design. There is no nuance to this game.

Most gamers these days don't want replayability, especially in a 100 hour game. They want to be able to do everything with one character (see also: being able to be master of every guild in recent TES games). Once and done and see/do it all! Get 100% of the e-peen achievements! I guess it's not bad game design to pander to the larger audience.

Some of us like to have to make choices that preclude other ones, to have something to return to and do differently on a subsequent playthrough. Pretty sure we're the minority, though.

Yeah....I get you. I would still argue it is bad game design. Might not be a bad idea from a marketing stand point, but IMO bad game design.

D3 did something similar with the fact that you only had to build one character for each class. But at least they didn't allow you to switch to from being a Demon Hunter to a Witch Doctor, which is essentially what you are doing here. And yes I realize the two games are analogous.

Well all my planets are at 100% Need to finish the Peebee, Liam, and Jaal loyalty quests. Those three go on hold a lot. Can't wait to kill the douche bag leader of the Roekaar Akksul. It is possible that he escapes my clutches so he can be killed in a sequel. Not that there will ever be a sequel.

I imagine that this was enough of a shit show that we will never get a sequel. Pity as the idea behind the game had merit.

Good1. First-Person animations of flying between and within systems to each planet are cool.2. Party members seem pretty likable. Tough choice who to romance first.3. Voice acting talent still high-caliber. 4. Still able to pick out and use my favorite weapons from ME3.

Bad1. Vast open spaces that require the use of the Mako are fun for a bit, but get incredibly tedious after a while. I actually liked The Hissing Wastes in DA:I, but that was the exception there in being the only area you really wanted a mount for, and it was a quiet desert at nighttime so the sparseness added to the atmosphere. Here every area (so far at least) is big and sparse.2. Having all abilities be available is pretty pointless when you're only allowed to use 3 abilities at any one time3. Tutorials are terrible, took me a while to understand the difference between Research and Development, or how to drive the Mako (I never saw a message about the 6-wheel drive mode, had to look it up in the menus).4. Even more real-timed quests that reward me for NOT playing the game. I unlocked the miners and scientists first so I'll be able to research and make almost every weapon/armor by just logging in and collecting every 45 minutes.

Good1. Very thankful they removed most ways in which the Mako could be annoying. If you drive off a cliff, or leave the map, you just appear in a safe spot, no "game over". Much nicer knowing I can go full speed at all times. Also, low-grav moon was fun.2. The repeatable quests are fairly cleverly disguised, as there are multiple lines of dialogue for each set. I didn't know that's what they were until I had completed 4-5 of them. Thankfully they are nowhere close to being necessary to hitting 100% on each planet.3. Besides a few exceptions, most characters (even the human ones) look way better than when it first came out.4. Romanced Peebee. She charmed me. Not sure if this happens anyway, but after I romanced her, her Banter in the Mako immediately started adding sexual references, in stride with wherever the conversation had been going with the 3rd party member. The Mako banter overall is pretty solid.5. Jaal is pretty great.

Bad1. Really, really sucks that you cannot skip the landing/taking off animations of your ship. These are required 15-20 second cutscenes that have to play every time you land or take off. For a while this wasn't an issue, as I sat on each planet for quite a while, but once I started doing all the cross-planet quests it dragged on quite a lot.2. Loyalty missions were all fine, but not spectacular. Think I still prefer earlier games where you had entire missions to recruit people, as here I got the whole squad very quickly. Having a recruiting AND loyalty mission like in ME2 gave you at least 2 missions dedicated to each person's problems/identity.3. Hey, I can jump now! Oh wait, I HAVE to jump almost everywhere, because Ryder finds it difficult to walk up 1 ft steps or stairs. His own personal acceleration in WALKING is somehow slower than the Mako, so every time he hits a pebble he stops in his tracks and takes a few seconds to start moving again (thankfully most of the civilized areas are free of obstructions).

About the jumping....there were times it annoyed me. But I was constantly jetting everywhere, for even the simplest of things. I was worse than the Weasley twins having gotten their apparition license. So that didn't bother me too much.

End Game Impressions (finished game, 100% on all colonies, all loyalty missions done, 75%-ish achievements so far)

Good1. Post-Final Battle ending was the most fleshed-out of any Mass Effect game, very similar to DA:O or DA:I. Apparently there are dwarves on board too, since you get an email from a certain DA2/DA:I character during the ending. "A great story, pathfinder. I'll write a book about this one day. V. Tethras"2. End-game area looks beautiful.3. Probably related to the loyalty missions, but the entire crew shows up at the end to help out, plus all the factions helping out before that. Pretty great job overall of making it seem like a team effort.4. Was pleasantly surprised by what they did with your twin.5. Crew as a whole sufficiently fleshed out. Probably liked Liam the least, but he's not toooooo bad. Was kinda surprised by the ACTUAL nudity in the love scene with Peebee. Also "romanced" the reporter Keri and that one Angaran museum lady (you know, for the achievement...), although neither one of those go anywhere.6. Didn't try "respec"-ing until post-game, but it's actually pretty cheap to do, which is nice since there's an achievement for getting to lvl 6 in each template which require a certain number of skill points in specific trees. Only 20 credits for the first, 520 for the 2nd, 1020 for the 3rd, etc..

Bad1. Final battle was really, really easy, but it probably should've been since I was lvl 62 with overpowered gear. Had abilities and mods that regen-ed 25% of my shields every time I killed an enemy, every time I emptied a clip, and the bar starts regen-ing immediately upon using any tech power, and armor with 44 damage resistance. They could not hurt me unless I just stood there for 30 seconds in the open, and the sequence didn't have any major decisions to make, it was just straight fighting a whole bunch of mobs.2. A whole lot left up to a sequel that will never come. Most of the choices don't seem to really matter that much within this game.3. Pop-in issues got worse and worse throughout the game. Sometimes the floor on the Tempest wouldn't load and I'd fall through it into space. Good times.

Is there anywhere that describes what all the ship stats do, ex. how shields work, how evasion works, what towers are, and so on...the help in the game doesnt describe what these things are and the wiki has no additional information.

Played a soldier/infilitrator style. Sniper rifle at range, Valiant assault rifle modded with full auto just mowed things down when the distance closed. Occasionally broke out the Dhan shotgun for funsies. Mixed in a few tech powers for variety.

The story and characters don't quite live up to Bioware's usual standard, but the combat is so much fun.